Pages

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

I often think about the role of reconciliation in the Idle No More
movement, how both non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal peoples play important roles
in the quest to achieve equality.With
images of protests, railway blockades, and highway slowdowns that run through
my mind when I hear the words "Idle No More", I force myself to shift
my thinking beyond the large scale exhibitions and consider the actions that
occur at the most fundamental level.Much less obvious, and not widely displayed to the average Canadian,
simple acts of respect and inclusion are occurring across this country and
their effects are of a quiet strength.

Let’s look to the party of 25 who decided to take Mr.
Dressup’s tickle trunk to a whole new level in late January.I am referring to the “Cowboys and Indians”
party that started at a private Toronto
residence and moved to The Rhino, a hipster hangout in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood.Perhaps you’ve heard about it?The event was a small blip on the media’s
radar.

A party of approximately 25 people proudly sporting
feathers, tomahawks, headdresses, braids, and plaid shirts, cowboy hats and
leather vests arrived at the Parkdale hotspot to celebrate two birthdays.They grew comfortable in the bar scene, dancing,
ordering drinks, making war calls and mimicking face scalpings.They were having a great ol’ time.

They were having so much fun, in fact, that they didn’t notice
the looks of utter disgust on the faces of the other patrons in the bar.Frankie, a Rhino regular, was also trying to
enjoy his evening with his group of friends but this proved to be challenging.He couldn’t relax while being surrounded by a
large group of non-Aboriginal people inappropriately dressed in traditional
Aboriginal attire who were acting out in such a disrespectful way.Frankie and his friends were also
non-Aboriginal, but that didn’t matter.They knew inherently that what they were seeing was just not right.They took action.

F

rankie and his pals took to Twitter.One tweet read, “There are people actually
dressed as cowboys and Indians.Face
paint and feathers.” Their tweets were
pushed forward by several Tweeters, and soon thereafter The Rhino twitter and
Facebook accounts were soon inundated with pressing messages accusing The Rhino
of promoting and supporting racist behaviours.

Julie, a female friend of Frankie’s, approached Rhino management
and was told, “It’s just a costume.Get
over it.”

Another individual from the group approached another Rhino
staffer and was told not to worry, that the group seemed to be on a pub crawl
and would surely be moving on to another destination shortly.

Clearly, the Rhino staff members were none too concerned.

Meanwhile in “TwitterWorld,” activists, Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal alike, from various areas of the City of Toronto, began to flock
to the Rhino to express their concerns and show solidarity.

One small group arrived at the bar with flyers for
distribution entitled, “Our Culture Is Not A Costume”.

Another small group took to conversing peacefully with
members of the offending group in attempts to educate the ignorance.

Mister G, who tweeted an update, provided that he was
successful in convincing the male offenders to remove their headdresses.“Here at the @TheRhinoBar got the guys to
remove their headdress.There are people
from the First Nations here, calm I don’t know how!!”

Following the incident, The Rhino was quiet. Comments on the
bar’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, whereby writers were calling out the staff
for lack of action on the matter, were promptly deleted.On January 29, approximately one week
following the incident, The Rhino issued a statement on their website
acknowledging the incident and clarifying that they had no part in organizing
the costume party.They also issued an
apology stating, “Please accept our deepest apologies to anyone who has been
offended by this incident and our assurances that we will not permit it to
happen again.”

We can thank the small yet significant actions of Frankie
and his pals who so admirably spoke up that night of the “Big White ‘Rhino’
that was in the room.”

It’s the little things…

Karen Restoule is Ojibway and a member of Dokis First Nation. She is a recent graduate of the French Common Law Program at the University of Ottawa. Currently, Karen is completing her articles in the area of social justice. Prior to attending law school, she worked in provincial corrections and legal fields. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 2005, in Aboriginal Studies and Linguistics. In her free time, Karen enjoys visiting with family and friends, cooking, film, and working towards the advancement of the rights of First Nations communities and peoples.

Monday, February 11, 2013

It’s the little things...

by Karen R. Restoule*

I often think about
the role of reconciliation in the Idle No More movement, how both
non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal peoples play important roles in the quest to
achieve equality. With images of protests, railway blockades, and highway
slowdowns that run through my mind when I hear the words "Idle No
More", I force myself to shift my thinking beyond the large scale
exhibitions and consider the actions that occur at the most fundamental level.
Much less obvious, and not widely displayed to the average Canadian, simple
acts of respect and inclusion are occurring across this country and their
effects are of a quiet strength. Read on...

Thomas, a popular hairstylist in northeastern Ontario, loves
his job and can’t imagine doing anything else.What other job would allow him to meet and chat with such a wide
diversity of people while expressing his creative artistic side in the styling
of hair. He was enjoying a pleasant Tuesday evening styling primping Connie and
Suzette, who had been clients of his for over a decade. The three of them were
enjoying a conversation about their travels, when Connie and Suzette began to
share their opinions on the more recent Idle No More movement and its effects
on their daily lives.

At one point, the exchange went something like this:

Connie: “I really wish them Indians would stop whining and crying
about their rights. The government gives them enough money as it is, they
should just shut up and be happy with it.”

Suzette: “Oh yes, I know. I was trying to get into town for some
shopping at Costco the other day and some of them had blocked the road! They
were only letting a few cars by at a time, and were handing out flyers to each
car that drove by. I was curious to see what it was they were complaining about
this time, so I took one and it was just another complaint about their
“rights”. I just don’t understand what more they want – the government gives
them so much already!”

And so the conversation continued.

Thomas grew quiet. He is not Aboriginal, but he has grown tired
of hearing the complaints about Aboriginal peoples and their rights. He found
himself wondering how it was that two non-Aboriginal privileged women could
have such strong opinions on a group of peoples that they clearly knew nothing
about. Thomas admits to having a limited understanding of the issues himself,
but before forming opinions he had reached out to few Aboriginal friends and
clients to whom he would ask questions from time to time. He was slowly learning,
and the more he learned, the more he was able to recognize the injustice and
inequality that is a reality for Aboriginal peoples in Canada and across the
world.

He felt that what he was hearing was wrong, so he decided to
speak up.

Thomas: “You know ladies, I don’t understand why you’re so upset
and speak so poorly of Aboriginal peoples.Just last year, you were outraged because one of our local mining
companies had been bought out and your husband’s jobs and workers’ rights were
affected. You both spoke so passionately about how important it was to strike
and advocate about the labour rights that your fathers, grandfathers and great
grandfathers had fought so hard to have recognized and protected. Why is it
that you believe it to be okay for the mining workers to advocate to have their
rights protected and respected, but it’s not okay for Aboriginal peoples to
advocate to have theirs protected and respected?”

Connie and Suzette sat in silence as their perms set.

It’s the little things.

*Karen is Ojibway and a member of Dokis First Nation. She is a recent graduate of the French Common Law Program at the University of Ottawa. Currently, Karen is completing her articles in the area of social justice. Prior to attending law school, she worked in provincial corrections and legal fields. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 2005, in Aboriginal Studies and Linguistics. In her free time, Karen enjoys visiting with family and friends, cooking, film, and working towards the advancement of the rights of First Nations communities and peoples.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Missing Sisters: A Crowdsourced Map of Violence Against
Aboriginal Women in Canada

Last week I wrote a post about Harassmap, a web site established by activists
to document and record women’s experiences of sexual harassment in Egypt. Part
of the goal of the map is to make visible the invisible and to create a
powerful visual and textual record with a view to social change.

On Tuesday, February 4 2013, the
group Anonymous released a crowd-sourced
map that aims to document crimes of violence against aboriginal women in
Canada. Information on the map appears to be collected from a combination of
newspaper reports, online municipal crime report information and reports by
individuals. The map includes a function that allows individuals to report
incidents. The map records solved and unsolved murders, missing women,
unidentified remains, and verbal and sexual assaults. While in some cases there
is little information available, some individual posts link to news stories, or
contain the written descriptions provided by contributors.

Maps of this kind have enormous
potential. They can create a verbal and visual record of incidents that might
otherwise go unreported. They also represent information in a way that can be
much more powerful than a series of isolated reports, and that can be more
compelling than a lengthy written document. Geographic representation of this
kind of information, combined with crowd-sourced reporting of incidents that
might not appear in official records also may reveal new and significant
patterns in the information.

The new Missing Sisters map is thus an interesting and potentially
important initiative. It gives a taste of what might be achieved using crowd
sourcing to document the extent of violence and harassment of aboriginal women
in Canada. The site is linked to Operation Thunderbird, a coalition of activists concerned about
violence against aboriginal women in Canada. The press release that was issued to launch the map speaks of
the goals and objectives of the map and gives more information about the steps
taken to collect and verify information. Unfortunately, very little of this
information about the site, its creators, and its methodology appears on the
Missing Sisters map site itself. Those who visit the site to upload their own
stories of harassment and violence should easily be able to find out something
about the map-makers, their objectives in creating the map and perhaps their
longer term goals for it. The site would also benefit from some clear and
explicit text (and/or video) explaining it goals and methods.

The Ushahidi platform that is the basis both
for this map and for HarassMap is free and user-friendly. Let’s hope that
Missing Sisters sparks interest and enthusiasm for this powerful vehicle for
communication.

Click here to see a documentary on the Idle No More movement by uOttawa law student Michael Anderson featuring faculty, students and activists from our Faculty of Law. More evidence of the AMAZING students we have here.